(5/17/2010) NEW HAVEN- At a press event today, Mayor John DeStefano. Jr. announced an amendment that was submitted to the Finance Committee of the New Haven Board of Aldermen earlier in the day seeking a Fiscal Year 2010-2011 budget that minimizes the tax increase on homeowners.

The amended budget provides for cuts within City departments and only a 1.64 percent total budget increase over Fiscal Year 2009-2010. Increases in the budget are concentrated in the areas of workmen’s compensation, pension and health care; items that cannot be reduced or changed without contract negotiation with the City’s labor unions. Top cost drivers in the budget are:

• $7.7 million increase in medical costs

• $1.45 million increase in self insurance costs

• $1.14 million increase in workers’ compensation costs

The amendments provide for nearly $6 million in cuts from the Mayor’s proposed FY2010-2011 City budget including the following:

• IT: Evaluate structure, vendor relationships and IT solutions to general government costs = $250,000

• Armory Re-Use: $70,000

• Engineering: Creation of Storm Water Authority = $1 million

• Self Insurance rebid

• Reduce Liability = $750,000

• Performance budgeting = $2.2 million

With this amendment, the average homeowner will experience an increase of approximately $18 per month in their tax bills. Taxes will remain frozen for eligible seniors who earn less than $53,000 per year.

With the amendments, the Mayor’s commitments to school change, public safety and economic development are preserved. Board of Education cuts target athletics, non-academic summer programming and the talented and gifted program. The budget amendments uphold City priorities of securing resources maintaining a three to five minute response time from the fire department/emergency medical response, new police officers to patrol City streets and the support needed to ensure that the school reform efforts spearheaded by the Mayor and Dr. Reginald Mayo are implemented.

“These are tough times all over America and there are plenty of tough choices in front of us,” said DeStefano. “This budget won’t be easy for anyone but it gets done what must be done: making things better for our kids by promoting school change in a nationally landmark fashion, working in partnership with all communities to keep our families safe, and keeping us growing the best among Connecticut cities.”

The amendment includes net $5 million in revenue for the securitization of the City’s Parking Meters. The amendment would bring the residential tax bill increase down to an overall 4 percent increase.